


Lose Your Breath

by AllaboutFinn (Savoury_Jelly)



Series: Finding Their Way to Each Other [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Ocean, belated ocean fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:35:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24689260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savoury_Jelly/pseuds/AllaboutFinn
Summary: Takes place a month or two after the events of "That Girl is Poison (and That Plant is Poisoned)." Finn and Rey have a day at the beach. Sort of.
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars)
Series: Finding Their Way to Each Other [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1747816
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: Finnrey Fanfic Connection





	Lose Your Breath

**Author's Note:**

> Next part in this series! It's not going to particularly be slow burn, and it will likely always be Finn's POV. I wanted to have this in time for the World Oceans Day theme by the Finnrey Fics blog, but the crazy shit going on the world right now just sort of sucked out my desire to write. I hope to be able to do a new part in time for the new theme in July ;)

Despite choking on his own sweat and the sensation that his lungs were about to implode any second, by sheer will, Finn managed to bring the damn bike to a stop.

Resting in the half-shade of a palm tree, he tried to gather himself. His legs and arms were trembling and he panted shallowly, his upper body bent over the handlebars to see if he could get his breath better that way.

... And, no. It wasn’t happening.

Somewhere above his head, he heard a voice. It sounded far away, but he realized that he could barely hear it only because his pulse was pounding out of his eyeballs.

“... you okay?”

Finn took a wheezing breath before lifting his head. Just ahead of him on the trail was Rey, her bike turned in his direction. She looked so concerned that he made an effort to straighten up completely and regulate his breathing.

“M’fine.” He reached for the bottle nestled in the cage on the bike’s lower frame. “Just going to take a swig of this fine superpowered water, and I’ll be ready to go again.”

It got the smile he’d hoped for, and as he drank, Finn felt an inward glow. He wasn’t lying, either. The water really _was_ the best he’d ever tasted. Rey said she’d “livened it up” with some cucumber and aloe juice — natural sources of electrolytes, and as such, much better than the chemical-and-sugar laden “sports drinks” on the market.

Finn was thirsty enough that he would have drank almost anything, though, and he had to fight not to drain half the bottle. He may not have been on a bike since early childhood, but he’d spent enough time in the gym to know that gulping too much liquid too quickly could lead to cramps – or worse.

“Better,” he said, putting the water bottle back into its cage. And he was. He was breathing more normally and his heart no longer felt like it was in his nostrils. “Just needed a second to ... catch my breath.”

Rey looked unconvinced.

“Finn, we can leave the trail and take the monorail up to the top. We’ve been going three miles almost perpendicular to the valley. It’s okay to bail out and take it easy the rest of the way. That’s what the monorail’s for, and that’s why there are exits pointing to it every mile or so.”

Finn set his jaw. “No way. I’m _fine_ , seriously. Just makes me think that I need to add an extra leg day to my workouts. Anyway, we’re almost to the top, right?”

“Yeah ... another quarter of a mile. Maybe a little less than that.”

She studied him a few moments more, then sighed.

“Okay ... if you’re _sure_. When we come down, I’ll take you to the Mariner’s Cay and buy you lunch.”

“Sounds good.” He adjusted the strap of his helmet. “Assuming you don’t have to pour me into the car when we come down.”

She laughed. Finn grinned in response and waited for her to start pedaling before following suit.

The ground was much more level than the nearly vertical incline that Finn had fought not to die on just moments before, and he was able to breathe easier, excited now at nearly reaching their goal. Rey had waxed rhapsodical about the view from the top of the trail that bisected Neftali Key, an island just across the bridge from Socorro City.

Finn had visited the sandy beaches of Neftali often in the first years after he and Jannah had come to Socorro City to live with their father. Growing up in landlocked Pau Province, Finn had never seen the ocean before then, and had, as a result, had been mesmerized the first time he’d seen the endless blue of the Kibilini Ocean.

Over the years, however, beach trips had morphed from family outings into forays with friends to have parties, flirt, and play boisterous games of sand golf. It wasn’t that Finn had forgotten somehow that Socorro City was on the tip of an archipelago and he was surrounded on three sides by water, but as he got older, his attitude was one of “the ocean and the beach will always be there,” to the point that except in his subconscious, the ocean and the beach had more or less _ceased_ to exist in his mind.

Thus his surprise when Rey suggested they bike the winding and grueling bike trail of Neftali. They’d been eating tacos after seeing a play in the park and Finn decided to blame his quick acquiescence to not wanting to choke on a poblano pepper. Plus, he was enjoying his outings with Rey—they’d mutually, but silently decided it was a little too soon to call them dates, so quickly after the end of his relationship with his plantkiller ex and his continuing studies for the bar exam and work at the firm at which he was a junior associate. They were still just getting to know each other, and taking it a little slow. It was more than friendship but less than spending the night at each other's apartments. It was a nice middle ground that Finn felt content with - for the time being.

Her helmet turned toward him. “I can smell the salt ... we’re almost there!”

Finn gave a thumbs up, then grit his teeth as the bike started to slip a little. Gripping the handlebars, he concentrated on keeping up with Rey. After a few seconds, he got back on pace and he smiled. He could smell the salt, too.

It was exciting, but it seemed like every time he was with Rey, he was learning something new about himself. Once, it had been that he _really_ liked blueberries. Another time he discovered he actually wasn’t bad at roller skating. And now this: He really _could_ bike a sandy, endlessly winding trail through a near jungle without wanting to die ... much.

There was a clearing ahead between a clump of squat trees, and beyond, Finn could see a slash of frothing blue and hear the cry of seagulls in the distance. 

"C'mon, Finn!" Her voice held a note of excitement. "I'll race you to the top!"

Finn's brow creased. "Bet!" he called back and began pedaling faster. The trail had widened and flattened at this point, and he found he was able to make up quite a lot of ground. He leaned forward, trying to propel himself, and he was soon abreast of Rey and her bike. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her quickly look toward him, and then she leaned forward, as well. Their panting breaths seemed loud in the humid air, and Finn was barely cognizant of the two of them emerging virtually at the same time from the clearing onto a sandy spit of slightly elevated land.

Rey skidded to a stop and waved frantically at Finn to stop pedaling. She needn't have. The moment he saw the waves crashing below them, the oblong green disk that was Thrugli Cay off in the distance, and the Tarheel Bridge that linked Neftali Key to the mainland in the distance.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Rey was next to him, her voice soft. "We used to come up here a lot when I was a kid and I loved being up here. It was like ... flying, in a way, being so high up."

He'd never seen the beach from this vantage point. Covered in sweat, in need of more of Rey's superwater, and feeling like every muscle in his body was going to mutiny any minute, the only thing he could think was that he'd never seen anything more beautiful.

Finn turned toward her, noting her pink cheeks and the smile that split her face and turned her eyes into glimmers of gold and green.

He swallowed hard and turned back to look at the water.

Well, almost never.


End file.
